Among the most valuable, yet overlooked tools a web site owner can have are Web Site Statistics. When talking with my clients, I find that many of the less technical minded site owners don’t even know how to access their stats, let alone interpret them.
The truth of the matter is that web site stats can help a savvy business owner overcome one of the most daunting differences between Offline and Online business — getting to know your customer!
The other unpalatable truth it that YOU, the business owner, are the person best placed to interpret those stats!
Believe me when I say that I can relate to the eye rolling numbness that can overtake you when trying to make sense of all of those numbers, charts, and graphs — I am a designer by training — I like and understand pretty pictures, but numbers are my downfall!
The good news is that as Google and the other Search Engine become more and more focused on giving a web surfer a positive and useful internet experience, the tools that they are creating to do this are providing more and more interesting and useful data for those of us who are numerically challenged.
Long tail and organic search are our friends, and being an intuitive thinker is an advantage when following those stats.
The only way to learn to interpret your web site stats is to look at them regularly… and often. I liken it to watching a slow train wreck! LOL Each time you look, the less fuzzy the overall picture will be!
One of my long term goals for 2008 has been to watch my site stats carefully and regularly, and what I am observing has been a real eye opener.
I won’t be teaching my Search, Search Engines and Web Site Statistics in June at TNNA, but the ebook covers most of the class material — you just don’t have me at the front of the room nattering on! *VeryBigGrin*.
To encourage y’all to start following your site stats, I have given a special discount on the ebook.
I submitted a large number of classes, so I am waiting for the official announcement about what I will be teaching. In January, I was scheduled to teach one class twice. It will be interesting to see if that is the case this time.
I DID submit several new classes — depending on which, if any, get chosen, I may be a busy bee, between now and then!
I really enjoy teaching at TNNA, so no matter what classes, I am looking forward to it.
I got an email last week from one of my January 2008 students. She said:
*quote*
I took your class about software for shopping carts at TNNA in Long Beach. Loved your class by the way, it was like taking a college class in 3 hrs. You rock. You’re so full of it!
I just spent 5 days in CA at TNNA’s Winter Market, answering lots of internet related questions and teaching a marathon of 3 hour classes about doing business online.
In the course of the show, I was asked many questions about doing business on the internet… in my classes, in the aisles, and at my booth. Often the questions are regarding how business is set up within common internet industry business models.
A common example is that most web designers handle all of the details regarding the web sites they design/develop, including registering the domain and providing the hosting. From the designer/developer’s point of view, this business model is very attractive and a good money producer.
However, from the point of view of a small business owner, this scenario can be fraught with many hidden dangers!
So… what do I do as a business consultant? Do I go with the flow and offer advice based on the common business models?
I always answer every question by first asking myself *What would I tell Lisa?*.
Lisa is my BF/Cousin and a single mom with 2 daughters in college and no financial help other than from her own business.
She called me at midnight (my time) to say that she didn’t have access to her web site to change the registration for an offline workshop. Her workshops are the financial backbone of her business, so this was a MAJOR business crisis!
As it turned out, we were able to get the issues resolved. Lisa’s web developer had sent Lisa the important info when she changed web hosts, so SHE had acted responsibly. Lisa had carefully kept the email that was sent, even though she wasn’t sure exactly what it all meant, so SHE had acted responsibly.
The problems had arisen because Lisa had not realized the importance of being the person controlling the information, decision-making, and action-taking concerning her web site.
So, there you have Lisa’s story, but this post was actually prompted by a question on a quilt industry business group and the answer I gave.
Someone was asking which of two reputable companies she should entrust with her online business. She was looking at it from both the financial aspect, and from the point of view of the different services offered and benefits derived. These certainly are important considerations, but, in my opinion, they are not the deciding factors I would use to evaluate things if Lisa called with the same question…
Any way… what would I tell Lisa?
For a serious business person such as Lisa (meaning her family’s finances depend on the business), I would recommend that Lisa operate her web site from her own hosting account, being sure that LISA owns her domain AND the hosting account and that they are NOT with the same company.
If Lisa owns and controls the domain registration and hosting (at separate companies), she would be able to move her site to a different hosting company, should the need arise for whatever reason. While it may be a PITA, her business has an excellent chance of surviving long term…
If everything is is someone else’s hands, she would most likely be starting over from scratch.
If Lisa were to decide to use one of the above mentioned companies, I would tell her to register and maintain her domains herself. I would tell her to have the company involved tell her what the new nameservers need to be and then Lisa should go in and make the changes!
When it is YOUR business, YOU need to control ALL aspects of it, whether you are Lisa or some other business owner!
Most small business owners are clueless about the internet and it becomes easy to allow someone else to take control and *just handle it* . I tell my clients to think about this in the same way they think about their bank accounts. They may not know all of the Ins and Outs of banking, but they certainly make sure that they are in control!
I had a wonderful time in Long Beach, teaching 5 classes for a total of 6 sessions. I taught 2 sessions of my Step By Step to your First Web Site class.
Interestingly enough I had two women attending that class, both of whom have retail stores with web sites. They are both in the process of rebuilding the web sites.
One web site was lost as the result of an acrimonious divorce (the husband kept it and since the poor wife didn’t know any of the info she needed to retrieve it… it is GONE)
The second woman is a widow whose husband died unexpectedly. He had been her web master and had created a lot of custom code for her site…
I was working on one of my newest eBooks early this morning, in preparation for the class I’ll be teaching about it in January at TNNA.
The subject is Preparing Products for Presentation on the Web. Whoa! Try saying that 3 times – fast! I’m teaching only one session in Long Beach and the class is already half full.
My classes are in lecture format, so I put a high limit on the number of seats available– in this case, there are 50. Going by the enrollment figures, there is strong interest in the topic.
Most of the folks attending this class are not technologically sophisticated. I also know that in many cases, the attendee may not be the person who will be doing the actual work down the road.
Most of my intended audience consists of folks who own successful OFFLINE businesses that they are taking ONLINE. Every day they make business breaking decisions about the internet. Both literally and figuratively, *The buck stops there!*. Knowing all this, I am working very hard to explain the WHYs of doing something – not just the HOWs.
Today I had a blinding realization about the best way to approach the HOWs of doing business online and why the WHYs are soooo important..
There is a lot of information available about how to do business Online. Much of it is focused on solving specific problems and as a result it deals with the HOWs, which is appropriate.
However, for many Offline business owners, knowing WHY to do something gives them the knowledge they need to make the BEST decisions for their businesses about HOW to do it. Unfortunately, this is where everything starts to fall apart.
As we all know, the Internet is a technological marvel. It is technology personified. In addition, much of it also deals with technological subjects. For obvious reasons, most of the pundits are technology geeks (and I say this in a kind and loving way! LOL). As a natural progression, technology pervades almost all explanations regarding HOWs and WHYs, no matter the topic under discussion.
This is completely understandable… but not always a good thing for the unsuspecting, technologically challenged Offline business owner trying to make sound Online decisions!
What I realized this morning is that most business owners need WHYs that are Technologically Independent.
Technologically Independent? What in the world do I mean by that?
Technologically Independent means that the WHY question for any issue has been analyzed down to its most basic components.
Technologically Independent means it is a question that can be answered no matter what the current technology is and the answer will be reliable no matter what future technology entails.
Huh? Let me give a couple of examples to illustrate my point…
In my Product Preparation class, I will be discussing specific issues such as the commonly recognized need to optimize photographs for the internet. There is no point in putting up a print optimized picture of 300 dots per inch, if good resolution on a computer monitor is only in the 72-96 pixels per inch range.
The file for the 300 dpi picture is much larger than it needs to be, it will take longer to load, and there will be no appreciable improvement in picture quality.
This is an issue that most web site How To Manuals discuss and many of them explain ways to accomplish this in varying degrees of detail.
OK… that all makes sense, but let’s take a moment to look at two different ways to explain the WHY of it.
The Technologically Dependent version of WHY says:
Product images displayed on a web site should be optimized for a compute monitor, not for print reproduction on paper.
The Technologically Independent version of WHY says:
Product representations should be optimized for the medium/device on which they will be displayed/interpreted.
Let’s take a moment to analyze these two approaches in a bit more detail…
The Technologically Dependent version of WHY, stating that *product images displayed on a web site should be optimized for a compute monitor, not for print reproduction on paper* assumes the following:
1) The product is being represented by an image (at this time in technology, there is also an underlying assumption that the image will probably be 2 dimensional)
2) The image will be displayed on a computer monitor
3) The alternative version of the image is one that can be printed on paper
The Technologically Independent version of WHY, stating that *product representations should be optimized for the medium/device on which they will be displayed/interpreted* is taking the position that:
1) There is not a specific form of product representation being discussed.
We could be discussing a photo, a drawing, a video, a holographic representation, a psychically projected image or even some other type that doesn’t exist yet. Note that we are not assuming that the image is a 2 dimensional representation, either
2) The medium/device is unspecified
It could be a piece of paper, a computer monitor, a hand-held computing device, a device capable of receiving a projection of some kind, or anything else that future technology may involve!
3) There is no alternative version of the image under discussion
… the WHY has been distilled to its simplest form.
Another example from my Product Preparation discussion concerns one of the two elements needed to successfully sell products.
The Technologically Dependent version of that element states:
To successfully sell products Online, you need an effective, functional web site / blog
This assumes:
1) The product’s sales vehicle is the internet
2) The delivery method to be used on the internet is a web site / blog
The Technologically Independent version of that element states:
To successfully sell products, you need an effective, functional presentation
This can be applied to printing on paper, billboards, audio, video, holographic or psychic projection, or any method or technology that hasn’t even been dreamed – yet.
If the WHY has been reduced to a Technologically Independent analysis, it can be applied to whatever technology is out there, now or in the future.
This means that the astute business person (either Offline or Online) has a fighting chance of being able to decide what is best for his or her business. It is not necessary to understand the ins and outs of the technology in question. Once the decision has been made, knowledgeable tech people can be hired to implement that decision!
So… what does a savvy, but overwhelmed business owner need to do?
When you are looking for HOWs to solve problems, take the time to find the WHYs, if possible. When you are studying the WHY, try to distill it down to a Technologically Independent explanation.
Technology is changing fast and furiously. Your time is valuable. Seeking out a HOW answer and ignoring the WHY will mean that a year or two down the road you will be looking for another HOW about the newest technology. In many cases, the WHY behind the two HOWs may actually be the same!
Life is short, don’t keep doing the same work over and over!
Sharing the Road to Success,
Tink
*****
Tink Boord-Dill uses her many years online, her carefully honed problem-solving skills, and her ability to explain complicated issues in an easy to understand fashion to help Offline Business Owners put their businesses Online, successfully.
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